Denver-Pueblo-Las Animas County CO Archives Biographies.....Alexander, H. J. 1851 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 1, 2009, 4:52 am Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918) H. J. ALEXANDER. Not by leaps and bounds but along the path of steady progress, a path carved out by determined effort and close application has H. J. Alexander reached his present prominent and creditable position in financial circles of Denver as president of the First National Bank. He is also identified with several other corporate interests which have led to the substantial development and progress of business activity in the city and at the same time have had marked effect upon the upbuilding of his individual fortune. Mr. Alexander was born in Fairfield, Iowa, August 20, 1851, and is a son of the late William Knox Alexander, a native of Pennsylvania and a representative of an old Pennsylvania family of Scotch descent. He was a boot and shoe manufacturer, following that business in the Keystone state and afterward in Iowa, having become one of the early settlers of Fairfield, Iowa. He was also a Civil war veteran, responding to the country's call for troops and joining an Iowa regiment in which he served as captain. His political endorsement was given to the republican party and he took a very active interest in public affairs and civic matters and served as probate judge at Fairfield, Iowa, where his death ultimately occurred. He married Ann Elizabeth Fore, a native of Pennsylvania and a representative of one of the old families of that state, of Pennsylvania Dutch lineage. Mrs. Alexander has also passed away. Their family numbered six children, three sons and three daughters. H. J. Alexander of this review was the fifth in order of birth and while spending his youthful days under the parental roof he pursued a public school education in Fairfield, Iowa, continuing his studies to the age of sixteen years, when he started out in the business world on his own account. During two years thereafter he followed agricultural pursuits and through the succeeding two years engaged in clerking in a store. He afterward spent a year as deputy county clerk of Jefferson county, Iowa, and on removing westward located in Colorado Springs, where he engaged in ranching for a year. He then made his initial step in connection with the banking business by entering the First National Bank of Colorado Springs in the capacity of teller. He remained there for a year and a half and then removed to Lake City, where he was assistant cashier of the Miners & Merchants Bank for three years and cashier for four years. He next held the position of cashier in the First National Bank at Trinidad, Colorado, where he remained for seventeen years, and on the expiration of that period he removed to Denver, where he arrived in June, 1902. Here he became cashier of the Continental National Bank and remained with that institution and with the Capital National for ten years, when the latter was consolidated with the First National Bank and Mr. Alexander became its vice president, filling the position until 1915, when he was elected to the presidency, and has remained since as the head and chief executive officer of this strong moneyed institution. He is likewise a director and vice president of the International Trust Company of Denver, a director of the First National Bank of Pueblo, Colorado, a director of the Denver Union Water Company, treasurer and a director of the Denver Tramway Company and a director of the Seventeenth Street Building Company. His interests and activities are thus broad and varied and constitute a valuable contribution to business activity and development in the city. For forty years he was connected with Thatcher Brothers, covering residence in Lake City, in Trinidad and in Denver. He is indeed a self-made man in the highest and best sense of the term. Starting out in the business world without financial assistance, he has steadily worked his way upward, carefully utilizing every opportunity for honorable advancement and gaining that broadening experience which has qualified him for further duties and larger responsibilities. Each year has chronicled his progress and noted the development of his powers, which have ultimately brought him to a most conspicuous and honorable position in the financial circles of the state. On the 27th of September, 1880, Mr. Alexander was married at Silver Creek, New York, to Miss Jennie Louise King, a native of the Empire state and a daughter of Delos G. and Adelaide (Woodbury) King. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander have become the parents of two children: Sidney King, who was born in Lake City, December 11, 1884, and passed away in Trinidad, Colorado, April 11, 1902; and Philip Knox, who was born September 29, 1891, and is a lieutenant in the Three Hundred and Forty-first Regiment of Field Artillery. In politics Mr. Alexander has always been a stalwart republican. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and is connected with the Denver Club and the Denver Country Club. His religious faith is that of the Methodist church. His military experience covers five years' service as a member of the state militia during his residence at Lake City. He is a forceful and resourceful man whose business balances up with the principles of truth and honor and who by the utilization of the opportunities that he has met has become a strong center of the community in which he lives. In his entire career he has displayed keen discernment and the faculty of separating the important features of any subject from its incidental or accidental circumstances and out of the struggle with small opportunities he has come finally into a field of broad and active influence and usefulness. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF COLORADO ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 1I CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1918 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/denver/photos/bios/alexande185nbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/denver/bios/alexande185nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cofiles/ File size: 6.4 Kb